Hamilton Visiting Artist Tom Walker (Ramicack Press) explored the artistic possibilities presented by the museum's collection during a visit earlier this year.

Tom was intrigued by the idea of achieving ethereality in his prints, saying that “The type in the collection is so graphic and bold… I wanted to explore how the forms could be delicate.”

For some prints, he used brayering to highlight the 'counter' shapes within individual letterforms, while other prints focused on the counter shapes formed by two adjacent 'H' letterforms.

Tom also produced a series of prints made entirely from rules, which were historically used to print a visual frame around text and images.

Because Hamilton's collection includes very large type and image blocks, it also contains large rules: the rules used in this print are 115 lines (~19.125 in./~48.5 cm.) long.

Tom's lockup had some of the rules straight, and others canted at angles. It's always a boost to have people using the museum’s collections in fresh ways! 

Visiting Artists are chosen by the museum to hold a three-year post allowing them use of the pressroom and collection to further their work, enhance the museum’s visibility, and support our mission of preserving history for creative use today.